The friends from the author's Caldecott Honor Book Yo! Yes? Meet again...telephonically. We hope, when the phone rings, that a friend will be calling, someone who "talks our language." In Chris Raschka's picture books, language is always important--and usually just the top layer of the story. Beneath what is said, other dramas are taking place. Such is the case with Ring! Yo? For, until the end, when both friends are shown, young listeners will have the chance to fill in for themselves half of the phone conversation. Of course, the body language of the boy we see is eloquent. We hear what he's hearing--and it isn't all happy. His friend is peeved, feels rejected. And so this afternoon he'll be playing with someone else. That's harsh news--our boy is so sunk, he literally falls off the page--but it's not the end of the story. No, the author-artist goes somewhere surprising from there. Children and inventive grown-ups will eagerly follow.
